


The Red Rose & The Moon

by wildemoon



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: ..kinda, Established Relationship, Fantasy, M/M, Oscar Wilde - Freeform, Pining, lots and lots of oscar wilde references because im me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24773041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildemoon/pseuds/wildemoon
Summary: A fantasy AU inspired by Oscar Wilde's "The Nightingale And The Rose" in which Harry is the Baker, Louis is the Prince, Zayn is the Magician, Liam is the Soldier and Niall is everyone's favorite Elf.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	The Red Rose & The Moon

Niall was nought but a humble wood Elf who lived in the beautiful woods by the glen. His was the happiest and most magical life that any Elf under the faraway heavens and the great enchanting Moon did ever live.

Every day, Niall would use his Elven magick to heal broken branches and make the flowers grow larger and more charming, and every night, he would stare at the Moon and admire the way she swayed and tittered along with her jasmines. 

Niall slept on the dewy leaf of a weeping cherry tree, and woke up to the great dawn chorus sang by the fair choir of lovely little blue jays and hyacinth and scarlet macaws.

He would shoot out of his leaf, ivory countenance graced by little touches of shell pink, a dazzling ever-present smile and golden wisps of hair, and sprint down the long, graceful swoops of the weeping cherry tree. 

"Good Morning Elf!" "Lovely day, sir!" "Hey-ho Nialler!" The Leaves would cry out, startled yet merry.

The big brutish Macaw would screech at him in greeting, her eyes sparkling with mirth and the wondrous gift of Life, and her little chicks would fret and fidget, bringing her attention back to them. 

Niall would swipe away the little droplets of dew from the sharp blades of grass, and dance jocosely to the music of the bubbling Brook. She was calm, old as the Moon, and she had seen the world. 

"There exists no permanence but in Love." She would whisper to him softly, when he came close to her shore.

Niall would always laugh, for he was young and carefree and naive, and did not understand Love.

"What is Love?" He would ask her, hopping about on the cadet rocks that adorned the bubbling Brook's silver neck.

"There exists no permanence but in Love." She would whisper again, smiling kindly and knowingly at him.

But Niall was only an Elf, and he did not understand Love, or all those other worldly affairs that fools like you and me consider to be of paramount significance.

But it so happened that one evening, Niall found a young Baker crying by his weeping cherry tree. The young Baker was accompanied by his friend, who was a Magician. 

Niall was only an Elf, and he did not understand Sorrow. So, he hid among the pinkest flowers of his tree and peered down at the young Baker curiously.

The Baker was weeping with shoulders that shook harder than the trembling of the last old Leaf when the bitter Winter winds blew over the glen.

But Winter's silver touch hadn't swept over the glen yet, and all the leaves were still a brilliant shamrock green. 

The Baker's kind looking eyes rained down little pearls of Sorrow harder than the grumpy, sour-faced Cloud in the gloomy month of August.

But August's gloom was far, far away and the Sky still wore a silken cape the hue of a brilliant cerulean blue.

So Niall sat above him, in the lovely pink flowers of Spring, and wondered why he wept. He wondered about Sorrow and he wondered about Love, when suddenly-

"The ball is tomorrow night, and my Prince will only dance with me if I gift him a rose the colour of the blood that runs in my veins." The Baker cried, voice deep and raspy and very, very dismayed.

The Baker raised his face up to the heavens, and Niall saw that the pair of lips adorning his boyish ivory face were pinker than all the flowers that grew on the weeping cherry tree, and that his eyes were like two little crystals formed out of the greenest waterlily leaves that lived in the swamp next to the weeping cherry tree.

The Magician's form was hidden from Niall's curious gaze by the weeping flowers of the cherry tree that dragged across the tall grass below, but Niall heard his voice nonetheless.

"The Prince doesn't care for a rose. He will dance with you all through the night and all through the day, till the end of Time, because his heart sings a song that only you can hear, just as my heart sings a song that only my Soldier can hear." The Magician replied, sounding rather wistful.

The Baker only cried harder, trembling from head to toe as a Seaman trembles when he detects the scent of a Storm on the horizon.

The Baker only cried harder, and somewhere far away, Niall thought he heard the Moon let out a great big sigh at the woes of lovers.

"The Soldier is a good man, and loves you as much as you love him. But my Prince has eyes that bring the Summer sky to shame, and a laugh that is brighter than the mighty Sun that make that yonder lake glitter, and a voice sweeter than the Nightingale that sings above us. The Prince is an exquisite creature, and he will not Love me unless I gift him a Rose as red as the mouth of Venus. Weep for me, Magician, for I have searched long and hard, and I've found every red flower that grows under the Heavens. Every red flower but a Rose." The Baker spoke sadly, and his voice wavered with both misery and adoration for his Prince. 

And oh! There was that word again. _Love_!

Niall remembered the Brook's whisper.

_"There exists no permanence but in Love."_

Niall remembered the Brook's whisper and thought about the Baker's sorrow and the Magician's wistfulness.

Niall remembered the Brook's whisper and felt his heart beat a little louder for he now knew what Love was.

His heart beat a little louder for the Baker, who was in Love with the beautiful Prince.

His heart beat a little louder for the Magician, who was in Love with the brave Soldier. 

Niall's heart beat a little louder for all lovers everywhere, and below him, the Magician's heart broke for his friend the Baker. The Magician had a gentle soul and his heart broke with a loud echoing crack, and he started weeping alongside the Baker.

"My dear Baker...my dear Baker! I will sing a Song of Love to the Moon, and She will shine brighter and brighter until the reddest Rose that ever lived grows from this rosebush at my feet." The Magician cried out in a heady rush of tremendous emotion, overcome by great pity for the Baker.

The Magician closed his eyes and thought of his Soldier then, and how _beautiful_ his Soldier was. The Soldier who had a heart larger and deeper than all the deepest oceans on every planet. The Soldier who was kinder and stronger than all the gods that lived on Olympus. The Soldier who had warm eyes that became golden as the Sun shone upon them, and lips that were redder than all the begonias that were carefully tended to at the Prince's castle.

The Magician thought of his Soldier, and stepped out from behind the weeping flowers and into the Moonlight, and Niall gasped, for the Magician was the most enchanting being he had ever seen in the glen.

Niall was nought but a humble wood elf who admired the Moon for she danced with the shadows all night long and breathed life into the fragrant jasmines. 

But The Magician was more beautiful than the Moon and all her jasmines. His eyes were the colour of sunlight filtering through Arabian honey, and his cheeks were embellished with the precise shade of rosewood pink that a red-throated finch would look at with covetous eyes. The Magician glowed in the twilight, and the Moon danced over the elegant crescent of his cheekbones, and Niall thought to himself that if there is such a thing as Love, and if Love has a physical form, then this must be it. 

Unaware of Niall's musings, the Magician thought of his Soldier and his eyes filled with unshed tears. He opened up his throat and started singing.

He sang a song with no words.

He sang a song that was long and slow and haunting.

He sang his achingly beautiful song, and for a moment, the moon glimmered brighter than she ever had before and all the jasmines seemed to open up their whorls and fill the night air with a most intoxicating perfume. 

The Magician sang, and the Baker let out his most grief-stricken cry yet.

The Magician sang and Niall felt his eyes become wetter and wetter for he was overcome with all the exquisite sorrows of Love that he would never experience. 

The Magician sang and thick. crystalline tears flowed freely over his cheeks, and somewhere far away, all the wolves of the glen knit their howls together into one long mournful cry. 

The Magician sang, and the rosebush at his feet quivered with an emotion unknown to all undergrowth and spit forth all its thorns at the Magician.

The thorns pricked the Magician, and he bled. He bled but he didn't care, for he was in Love, and he was singing a song for the Moon.

He sang, and his song grew more and more haunting as the blood trickled out of his veins and seeped into the rosebush, and for a moment, Niall thought he saw the golden form of Apollo flicker through the Magician's soul.

The Magician sang, and slowly, the most _magnificent_ Rose that Niall had never seen began to curl out of the rosebush. It curled and coiled and grew until all the blood had seeped out of the Magician's veins and into the rosebush.

The Magician sang, and with a final mournful cry, collapsed onto the hard forest ground.

Niall, dismayed and grief-stricken at the Magician's fate, could not bear to see him lying down on the forest ground like an ordinary woodland creature, so he twirled his fingers, worked his Elven magick and prayed to the Moon until the most exquisite pink carnations bloomed from the Magician's chest and the fairest lilies the glen had ever seen burst forth from the ground around him.

The Baker stopped weeping and the sweetest smile bloomed over his flushed face. The sheen of his ivory skin at this strange, tragic hour of the night reminded Niall of a bewitching little pearl lost in the depths of the coldest, darkest ocean. 

Niall watched from among the pink Spring flowers as the Baker knelt down by the lilies that were almost as fair, and almost as beautiful as him, and pressed a final gentle kiss onto the Magician's brow, bidding him farewell forever.

The Baker plucked out the Rose with disbelieving, trembling fingers and trotted out of the glen happily for he knew that come tomorrow, he could dance with the Prince all through night, and all through day, till the end of Time.

The Magician lay amongst the Moon's flowers for several days and several nights, and every night, Niall would sing a special song to bring peace to the Magician's restless soul. Sometimes, he thought he could hear a distant wail that sounded alarmingly like the Magician's Song of Love.

Spring turned to Summer, and the trees danced with mirth. The flowers surrounding the Magician only continued to grow in number and beauty. The sky became as blue as a fresh moonstone, and the great dawn chorus became louder, and livelier, as all the blue-jays and scarlet macaws that had gone away to Egypt returned back to the woods by the glen. The nights echoed with the sound of the Prince's laughter and the Baker's sighs as they danced away through Seasons and Time.

But Niall the humble wood elf knew no happiness. He knew not the joys of Summer, for still every night, he would sing a special song to bring peace to the Magician's restless soul. And still every night, he would hear a distant wail that sounded like the Magician's Song of Love. And still every night, he would see the reddest Rose the world ever bore in his dreams. 

One midsummer afternoon, everything changed.

One day, Niall heard a long unfamiliar wail that did not sound like the Magician's Song of Love. 

He raced over the long, graceful swoops of the cherry blossom tree. 

"Good Morning Elf!" "Lovely day, sir!" "Hey-ho Nialler!" The Leaves cried out, startled yet merry, but Niall heard them not.

He came into the clearing where the Magician's body, preserved by the Niall's magick, and the Moon's flowers, lay, and saw a sight most tragic.

The Soldier had returned from his war abroad, and now knelt by his Magician's side, lamenting in a most heart-rending manner. 

Niall hid behind the lovely orange flowers of Summer and watched, anguished and sorrowful. 

Afternoon morphed into Midnight, and still the Soldier lamented.

The Moon came out and worked her magick over the Magician's body, keeping him as warm and amber as the day he'd collapsed, and still the Soldier lamented.

The Soldier's cries drowned out the Prince's laughter and the Baker's sighs.

The Soldier's grief dimmed the Moon, and made her fair lilies wither.

The Soldier's grief poisoned the swamp in which the waterlilies grew, and lay waste to the weeping cherry tree on which Niall slept. 

"Hide the Moon! Hide the stars!" The Soldier cried.

"Hide the Moon! Hide the stars! Put out all the lights that yonder shine, and let darkness reign supreme, for my Love is gone!" He cried out in agony, and wept harder and harder.

The Moon looked down at the Soldier, and his lost Love. She looked down at the withered lilies that lay around the Magician's body. The Moon heard the Soldier's cries and took pity on him, for She knew that to live without Love was a fate most tragic. 

And so it was, that the Moon listened to Niall's prayer and turned the Magician and the Soldier into two beautiful golden stars so closely intertwined that they appeared to be _one_ , and one night, the Scientist looked upon them with his mighty, scientific contraption and gasped, for such beautiful stars he had never seen before.

The Scientist pulled out his little notebook that he carried upon him at all times, and quickly named the golden star; _Capella_.

So if one day, you look into the great big cauldron of the universe, and among the thousands of glittering crystals, find one beautiful golden star that shines brighter than the rest, then you know that it is, in fact, _two_ beautiful golden stars who used to be lovers here on Earth; people like you and me, and are now lovers next to the moon, where they dance with each other every night, and cradle each other when the Moon goes to sleep. _The Soldier and the Magician_.

And if one day, the wind brings to you, an echo of distant laughter and distant sighs, then you know that they belong to the Prince and the Baker, who are still dancing away all night and all day and will do so till the end of Time, for each of their hearts sings a song that only the other can hear.

As for Niall the humble wood elf, he hears the distant wail no more, for the Magician's soul is finally at peace. He continues to sprint down the long, graceful swoops of the weeping cherry tree everyday. He continues to swipe away the little droplets of dew from the sharp blades of grass, and dance jocosely, to the music of the bubbling Brook, for she is calm, and as old as the Moon, and she has seen the world.

And when she whispers to him softly, the same words that she whispered all that time ago, Niall merely nods happily and continues dancing merrily, for now he knows what Love is, and his is the happiest, and most magical life that any Elf under the faraway heavens and the great enchanting Moon did ever live. 

_"There exists no permanence but in Love."_

_-_

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to one song on repeat while writing this, and it made everything so much more magical. So if someday, you were to reread this story, I'd suggest listening to Young And Beautiful by the FANTASTIC Lana Del Rey while reading it *swoons*. If you liked this fever dream, please let me know in the comments ! Have a lovely day ! :)


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